Alta Rock

Alfresco Italian and Negronis in Chelsea

An early-’90s-style, indulgent, sweet-cherry-pie kind of cherry like Alta Linea, a not-indoors
place for frozen Negronis and Italian small plates at the High Line Hotel, opening tomorrow.

Hopefully you’re aware that this used to be a seminary (and last year, Champagne Charlie’s), which makes
the whole frozen Negroni aspect, in the words of the great thinker Homer Simpson, “sacrilicious.”

But hell aside, there are no bad seats in the house (the photos don’t lie). What there is is a charming string of lights and old lampposts
enveloping the courtyard you’re in as you dig into pork-meatball polenta with bacon (redundancy isn’t
always bad).

And in the obligatory “save room for” category, we have a cookie that employs sea-salt fudge, pignoli and jam.